Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 3, 1993 TAG: 9310030244
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Newspapers
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A: Of the 17 countries that have held the Summer Games since they were resurrected in Greece in 1896, the United States takes the gold, having played host three times, which will become four with the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Australia, which just won the honors for Sydney in 2000, will join Greece, France, Great Britain and Germany as countries that have twice played summer host.
France and the United States, two of the 10 countries where the Winter Games have been played, have held the Winter Olympics three times each. Switzerland and Austria will be joined as two-time winter hosts by the end of the century, since Norway, scheduled to host next year, and Japan, scheduled for 1998, have each held the winter games once before.
Q. When was the last major initiative on health care introduced by a U.S. president that shares the scope of President Clinton's proposal, and how long did it take for Congress to act on it?
A. In his 1965 State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson called for the creation of a new wide-ranging health-care program that would attend to the health needs of the United States' senior citizens. The proposal was passed by Congress and signed into law by Johnson a short seven months later, on July 30. Today, we know that program as Medicare. On Jan. 20, 1966, two former residents of the White House became the first recipients of Medicare identification cards: Harry and Bess Truman.
Q. Is the cholera epidemic any threat to the United States? Have there been any cases here?
A. Linked as it is to contaminated drinking water and poor sewage treatment, cholera is largely a threat to the Third World, so the United States isn't at any great risk. But Americans traveling in undeveloped countries could be, and they should exercise caution about eating uncooked food or vegetables and drinking water of questionable purity.
The new strain, Vibrio cholerae 0139, dubbed Bengal cholera, was first detected in India in late 1992. It's killed thousands in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and it has already spread to Thailand. The speed at which it's moving has caused epidemiologists to warn that it could become the eighth cholera pandemic since 1817.
One nonfatal case of Bengal cholera has been reported in the United States. A Los Angeles woman who returned from a vacation in India earlier this year was successfully treated for the severe diarrhea that typifies cholera. It turned out to be V. cholerae 0139.
Q. Do identical twins have identical fingerprints?
A. Forensic scientists specializing in fingerprint identification say that identical twins do not yield identical prints from any of their fingers, thumbs or palms. Even a twin is unique in that way, they say, because no one else in the world has the certain intricate pattern of ridges that make up the whorls or loops of a twin's prints.
Those identical twins, however, would have identical DNA or "genetic fingerprints," a term used by DNA specialists to indicate the profile of an individual's genetic code.
Q. I've noticed that a chemical called benzoyl peroxide, used in acne medication and skin-care products, also is listed as an ingredient in some brands of frozen pizza. Why is it used in pizzas and is there any connection between its use in food and cancer?
A. You've got a sharp eye, but your worry about benzoyl peroxide in foods is unfounded, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration official. The chemical is sometimes used as a bleaching agent in flour, some cheeses and milk. So the pizza maker had to include it in its list of ingredients if the flour used had been bleached, or whitened, by benzoyl peroxide.
The officer said all food additives are investigated thoroughly before the FDA approves their use and that no link with cancer has been found. The amounts of benzoyl peroxide in any food are relatively small compared to the strengths found in acne medication, where the chemical serves mainly as a drying agent.
The FDA is having the cosmetic industry conduct exhaustive tests on benzoyl peroxide because of a concern several years ago that it might be a tumor promoter in its acne treatment role. So far, no scientific evidence from the testing indicates there is a danger.
Q. What is the background of sanctions against South Africa?
A. Congress passed a list of sanctions against the government of South Africa in October 1986, in the face of stiff opposition from the Reagan administration.
In July 1991, President Bush deemed the necessary requirements met, and lifted sanctions that prohibited trade with South Africa, prevented the South African airlines from landing in the United States and forbade American banks to lend money to the South African government.
However, the U.S. still adhered to international sanctions preventing South Africa from borrowing from the International Monetary Fund or Export-Import Bank and a mandatory U.N. arms embargo on South Africa.
Q. What conditions, according to the sanction laws passed by the U.S. Congress, had to be met before the sanctions could be lifted?
A. Lifting the sanctions required the following: an end of the state of emergency by the South African government; legalization of banned political parties; repealing laws that prevented black South Africans from choosing where they could live; reversing the Population Registration Act, which required that all South Africans register their race at birth, thus tying their individual right to the degree of freedom they would enjoy in South African society; the release of political prisoners; and the initiation of negotiations with black leaders to form a new democratic political system.
Q. What are the duties of the U.S. surgeon general and why does a "general" wear the blue uniform of a navy vice admiral?
A. The surgeon general is the "nation's doctor," who serves the president as medical adviser on public health matters. As the new surgeon general, Dr. Joycelyn Elders also is responsible for releasing health advisories from the Health and Human Services Department and for issuing warnings to the public on health hazards associated with various products.
She is commander of a uniformed commissioned corps of 6,500 professionals that include doctors, pharmacists and sanitarians who are subject to quasi-military activities following floods, hurricanes and war. That corps was active in the Gulf War and recently in helping restore the water system in flooded Des Moines, Iowa.
Elders' uniform springs from her corps' navy roots as the health service for merchant mariners during the presidency of John Quincy Adams. All surgeons general hold the rank of a three-star admiral while in office. The designation surgeon general is not a military title, but refers to the fact she is the chief medical officer of the country.
Q. Where did the original Golden Rule come from? And what was the name of the recent conference that came up with its own Golden Rule?
A. Most scholars agree that the rule is grounded in Christ's injunction from his Sermon on the Mount, "So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them."
It has been called the Golden Rule by the English since at least the mid-16th century, implying that this rule of conduct surpassed all other rules as gold was deemed to surpass all other metals.
Five centuries before Christ was born, Confucius proposed a Golden Rule in a negative form: "Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you."
It is not surprising that the World Parliament of Religions that met in early September in Chicago crafted a Golden Rule that hewed closely to the original. It suggests that, "We must treat others as we wish others to treat us."
Q. At pharmacies, you often see the Rx sign. What does it mean and where did it come from?
A. That combination of letters is medical shorthand for a prescription or recommended treatment. The symbol has an arcane history, springing from the medieval Latin term for recipe - "recipere" - which meant "to take."
There actually is no x in Rx. It is an attempt to represent in ordinary block letters a handwritten capital R with a slash across the letter's front leg (R/). That symbol was used because "recipere" (take) was the first word in most prescriptions directing someone to use a certain quantity of medicine.
The English word "recipe" originally meant "a medicinal prescription." Only later did it acquire the meaning it now has as a formula used in cooking.
by CNB